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Monday, March 14, 2011

Spring tree pruning...how do you do it?

I have been out of town for a week and have just now caught up on my blog reading. I noticed several fellow bloggers discussing how they needed to prune their tree a little bit. My initial thought was "my tree is just fine how it is." But I also received several emails from cousins over the past week asking for the information I had on this ancestor or that ancestor. Every time I get one of these requests I have to start over by reminding myself who that person was. What documents have I requested for them? What are my brick walls? While I do not add any ancestors to my tree willy-nilly, I still have a lot of room for improvement on tracking the people I do have.

I have many documents for each ancestor that I have added as sources to my tree, but a source citation doesn't really address the "meat" of the document. I have created an Excel spreadsheet that documents all my requests for each family line, but that document does not afford me a way to describe that ancestor. I utilize FamilyTree Maker, but I don't really like the reports it generates. I suppose I need to create a Word document that meets my needs. How do you document your ancestors? How do you share information with cousins? Inquiring minds want to know...

Congratulations! Yvonne is write in that your blog is excellent and extra kudos for writing regularly!

Trying to keep my Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker files in sync is a chore. My hope is that the next release will provide a seamless interface. Currently, the Family Tree Maker file is the most current, but I try to keep the other up-to-date to aid other researchers.